Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated from campsites and homes in southern France as out-of-control wildfires swept through the country, while violent scenes erupted in supermarkets across the nation as desperate shoppers fought each other — in some cases pulling each other’s hair and tackling rivals to the ground — to secure fans and air conditioning units ahead of a fresh wave of extreme heat.
The fire broke out at a campsite in Sainte-Marie-la-Mer, near the Spanish border, destroying dozens of mobile homes before spreading to the neighbouring town of Canet-en-Roussillon. Perpignan airport was closed as approximately 2,000 firefighters battled multiple blazes, with four helicopters deployed and three Canadair firefighting planes on standby. A separate fire in the Aude department scorched around 900 hectares as winds of up to 70 kilometres per hour hampered the efforts of nearly 700 additional firefighters. The top official for the Pyrenees-Orientales department, Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, said authorities were particularly concerned about an industrial zone containing potentially polluting substances and flammable materials.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, whose minority government faces a no-confidence vote on Monday over its handling of the heatwave, held a crisis meeting in Marseille, where he confirmed that 8,700 hectares had burned across France so far this season, including 1,200 on Wednesday alone.
The chaos on the ground was matched by extraordinary scenes inside supermarkets. When Lidl promised to put 200,000 fans and air conditioning units on sale, hundreds of shoppers queued outside stores before dawn. From the moment the doors opened, the scenes descended into violence. Videos circulating on social media showed women pulling each other’s hair, shoppers being crushed at checkouts and customers tackling rivals to the floor. In Nanterre, more than a hundred people damaged a store’s entrance door in the rush. In the 14th arrondissement of Paris, tear gas was reportedly deployed and women fell as crowds fought over a reported two air conditioning units. At one store in Rueil-Malmaison, a single unit was claimed by a woman who had been waiting since 5am.
The promised stock proved woefully inadequate. In Saint-Germain-en-Laye, shelves were emptied within minutes, leaving only around 50 fans and no air conditioning units. According to BFMTV, only around ten shoppers at one location managed to leave with a device. “It’s ridiculous, people have gone completely mad,” said Haissam, a local resident, speaking to Le Parisien. A taxi driver called Walker was more pointed in his criticism: “Lidl knew perfectly well it would be chaos and they didn’t organise anything.” One sardonic victor shared a photograph of their purchase on X, writing: “I’ve won the holy battle of Lidl. A source of pride I’ll add to my CV.” By comparison, Carrefour sold at least 30,000 fans and air conditioning units in a single day on 22 June — roughly 1,000 times its daily average — according to chief executive Alexandre Bompard.
The frantic demand for cooling equipment reflects a public health catastrophe unfolding in real time. France’s national public health agency reported that deaths surged dramatically during the peak of the heatwave last week. More than 1,200 people died on the Wednesday when France recorded its hottest ever day — a record that had itself only been set the day before. Fatalities climbed further to more than 1,400 on both Thursday and Friday. For context, France’s pre-heatwave daily death rate in April and May ran at between 900 and 1,000. The agency warned these preliminary figures were likely to rise as death certificates from homes and care facilities continued to come in.
The World Health Organisation’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, posted on X that 150 million people were currently living under extreme heat. “Hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling,” he wrote. “Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ heatwave is now occurring nearly annually. We were warned.” The World Meteorological Organisation had itself cautioned last week that the record-breaking late June temperatures across Western Europe had significantly elevated the risk of wildfires given the sustained heat, very low humidity and tinder-dry vegetation.
French Green party lawmakers have announced plans to file a no-confidence motion against Lecornu’s government over what they described as its “lack of preparedness not only for the heatwave we have just experienced, but especially for the one that is coming,” according to Greens leader Cyrielle Chatelain. Government spokesman Maud Bregeon dismissed the move as “a political manoeuvre,” insisting there was “a government managing the crisis” while political forces sought to exploit it. The motion is considered unlikely to succeed without backing from the National Rally or the Socialists, the latter of whom have not supported any of the no-confidence motions filed against Lecornu since he took office.
